Love Is Blind
by Mr.Panic Attack
Summary: Ivan Braginski, a blind college student falls in love with a certain storywriter's voice, and lavish stories of handsome princes loving handsome princes soon begin to blur between fiction and reality. Cover credit:
1. Love at First Word

**WARNING:MENTION OF ABUSE, DISABILITIES, ATTACHMENT ISSUES, AND SHITTY WRITING AHEAD!**

 _ **AN: So uh, guess who found an idea for a RusAme? Let's see where this goes? As always, reviews and comments fill my heart with life and are immensely appreciated. Hope you enjoy my writing.**_

Ivan had lost his sight at age sixteen. Due to an _"accident"_ involving an abusive father. An _"accident"_ involving bleach in his eye drops, and endless, endless crying. Ivan's beautiful amethyst eyes had turned a soft lavender, his pupil covered by the opaque cataract that'd healed over after years of pain. It had taken the Russian years to learn how to maneuver using his ears and hands outstretched, as he would get severely beaten if anything in his lavish childhood home was broken.

Ivan's only savior was his mother, who had bought her son a beautiful seeing eye dog named Laika, a snow white samoyed as well as used her husband's riches to send Ivan to a college for the disabled, locate in America, far, far away from any harm. It seemed almost impossible, and yet there he was, in his second year of education. Majoring in Russian literature, and minoring in English, as he had to learn it somehow. Two years, and twenty four months, had been quite enough time for Ivan to learn the language quite fluently, though his accent had never quite faded. Francis, Ivan's only friend, was always quite fond of his accent, and always complimented him on it.

In fact, that's what was happening then, the two in Ivan's small room, the handsome blonde spread out on the comfortable bed, talking to his sightless best friend who sat on the floor, quite engaged in petting his immensely fluffy dog.  
"Ivan?"  
"Да?"  
"You like stories right? Fictional universes?"  
Ivan sighed silently, Laika leaning into his palm with appreciation as her ears were scratched.  
 _"Да."_

"Okay, I found a really cute guy on campus-"  
"Oh, Francis, not this again. I've told you-"  
"No, no hold on, I mean it this time!"  
"You mean it every time! I told you I'm not interested in you trying to hook me up with some man who I don't know, and doesn't know me!"

Ivan seemed mildly upset about the topic, and Laika, being the service dog she is, immediately climbed into Ivan's lap and began to give him little kisses, nuzzling the man to comfort him. The Russian patted his dog, letting her know he was okay before leaning towards Francis, his ear facing the man more so than his eyes, to better understand him.  
"No, Ivan, please- He makes stories… O-On YouTube! I just heard one and I thought you'd like to listen to it. It reminded me of, some of the things you write… I didn't mean to upset you, please don't be angry with me I-I-I-I-"

The Frenchman stuttered, beginning to panic. Francis had been accepted due to his horrible attachment issues. Anytime Ivan was even mildly upset he began to shake and apologize, to which Ivan always hushed him and reminded the blonde of his therapist's advice.  
"Francis, it's okay, it's okay. Remember what said about apologizing? You did nothing wrong."  
"Okay, okay… But- here, I'll play it for you."  
He said, tapping his phone and turning up the volume, setting it on the bed between the both of them.  
"... Hey listeners, so, I've written another thing-"  
The video was paused.  
"I'll just skip the beginni-"  
"No. keep it."  
Love at first sight was something Ivan would never know, but love at first word… this was it if nothing else. Even Laika could tell something was different with her companion, as he'd been completely pulled out of his own head, and that was more difficult than finding a needle in a pile of fake needles.  
"-thing, and of course I gotta read it now, 'cause I haven't posted anything in like- five days, oh my god! Has it been that long?! Geez! Well, I'm rambling again, so uh-."  
The man coughed, clearing his throat before he read.

 _"I've been on this train for hours now, and yet it feels like seconds. Everything goes so fast now that I've grown up. I hate it. I hate it more than I can say, and there are so many things I want to say. I want to pour my heart out onto this unclean steel floor. Words and feelings streaming from between my teeth and out my chapped lips. I cannot bear to hold it all in any longer and it comes out through my eyes. Saline dripped down reddened cheeks as my mouth opened in a silent scream, not wanting to tell anyone else of my pain…"_

The story went on for five whole minutes, not including the clumsy outtro from whomever was speaking. Ivan had since fallen into a trance, smiling lazily with flushed cheeks to beat any drunk on a holiday. Francis said nothing as he looked over at his friend, grinning with a newfound enthusiasm.  
"You- You like it?"  
He asked, wide bluebird eyes eagerly awaiting Ivan's response.  
 _"Another."_  
"I'm sorry, what-"  
"Another, I want to hear another."  
Ivan ordered, making to effort to look at Francis the best he could with blind eyes, a real effort for him. See, Ivan wasn't entirely blind. He could make out darkness and light in very extreme forms, and Francis sat on his bed blocked out a large blob of sunlight coming from the window.  
"Woah, alright then, another it is."  
He said softly, clicking on another video to satisfy his entranced friend. 

_It was the start of a wonderful addiction._


	2. The Prince of Winter

Ivan woke with Laika headbutting his chest and whining softly, worried that her master wasn't waking up due to an injury of some sort. It was odd for him to sleep so late, and even after his alarm had gone off, shut down, and gone off again, he was still in a deep sleep. Ivan wasn't hurt, just exhausted due to the fact that he had listened to almost all of who he now knew was "Alfred Jones"'s videos, and it had lead to the Russian staying up until five am, and passing out listening to the playlist. Ivan woke groggily, and he placed a hand on Laika to steady her, taking his first big breath of the day.

"Laika… I think I'm in… Love?"  
He said, quiet and unsure. Ivan was quiet and unsure in general, and his lovely voice was never far from his mind, meaning inside his head. The Russian was not one to speak too often, and when he did, it was mostly short sentences, timid and to the point. Francis always said he loved Ivan's voice, and was always trying to get him to speak more, but to no avail. It wasn't something he liked to do, and past trauma had made it so that Ivan was quite quiet. To be seen and not heard, and hear, but not see.

Laika let out a soft little 'boof' and Ivan laughed, feeling out the dog's face before giving her a kiss on her forehead.  
"I love you, but this is a different kind, silly."  
He said softly, unaware that had anyone been watching him, they would've classified his behaviour as "absolutely fucking adorable." Regardless, he continued, happy as a clam. Ivan lifted the average sized dog onto his chest with his strong arms and kept petting her as he sighed, staring blankly at the grey that stood in place of the ceiling.  
"It's almost as if… I'm not sure, but I want to meet him, a-and talk to him and… Oh god, I want to kiss him… Do you think I'm being too brash with all this?"  
Laika responded with a big kiss to Ivan's nose, and he laughed, glad to have his dog's approval.  
"Well, alright… Let's go for a walk while I think this out, hm?"  
The snow white samoyed jumped off the bed, wagging her tail and ready to go. Ivan smiled wide and stood, feeling around his room for the leash. Francis had told him it was red in an attempt to help once, but of course, that hadn't helped anything at all. The leash brushed Ivan's hand, and his fingers curled around it, feeling the tightly woven cord and the cold metal clip, confirming that it was, in fact the leash.  
"Laika, darling, come here."  
He said sweetly, fingers rubbing over her special service dog vest and eventually finding the cold metal ring he was to clip the leash onto. Ivan did just that, and let Laika carefully lead him to the door, letting her be his eyes for the moment.

~

Alfred sat in the campus garden, just looking at the rosebush in front of him as he struggled to break his writer's block. His composition book and favourite pen lay in the dirt beside him and the blonde sighed, losing all hope until he heard footsteps, and… panting? It wasn't until the two walked into sight that Alfred realized it was just someone and their dog. Well, not just someone. Alfred had never seen him before, but his overly emotional heart skipped a few good beats as a man with moonlight hair came into view. He looked like the prince of winter himself, seemingly carved out of ice by Michelangelo and brought to life by a mysterious magic that only appeared in the dead of night on a new moon. The blonde's heart began beating out of his chest and his sapphire eyes widened, knowing his heart had caved in and left a hole that only that man could fill. Alfred stood shakily and watched the two approach, entranced by the man and his snow white dog, blinking only when the dog sat down only a few inches from his feet, making the man stop as well, and look around. Only then did Alfred realize why the two walked so closely. The beautiful man was blind, and completely unaware of the blonde student that stood just inches from his strong chest.  
"Laika, what is it? You're acting strange."

Alfred's knees almost gave out as he heard the man's voice. The sound was deep and velvety like melted chocolate, and yet had an air of bashfulness and gentle care, as well as that accent-... Russian? Maybe. Either way Alfred was surprised he couldn't hear his heart beating out of his chest. The samoyed let out a little boof and the man let out a cute little huff.  
"Well-... Laika, I don't know what you're doing."  
He said, sighing and slowly reaching his hand out and touching Alfred's shirt.  
"It's not a wall, or a plant-... What is-?...Oh- Oh my god, I am so sorry, I didn't realize you were there, oh my gosh-..."  
The man babbled, realizing that he had just felt up Alfred's chest, trying to figure out what was blocking the path. Alfred, however, was a blushing mess, and happened to be even a little turned on, but not enough to completely cloud his vision.  
"Oh- No, no, you're fine. I-I just was wondering of I-... I could pet your dog?..."

He fumbled, trying to come up with any reason to stay close to the man with moonlight hair.  
"Uhm, y-yes, If you'd-... like to…"  
The man seemed to go red and looked somewhat shocked, from what Alfred couldn't tell. He bent down a bit and let Laika smell him before petting her head.  
"My name is Alfred by the way."  
He said, looking up and watching the other's lavender eyes go wide.  
"I-Ivan…"  
He replied, smiling softly and making an odd attempt to look at Laika, which was where Alfred had to be, right?

"It's nice to meet ya, Ivan!"  
Alfred said with a soft laugh, happy as could be. Laika let out another little boof and nuzzled the American, letting him know he was alright. Ivan was grinning happily, practically beaming and "looking" at Alfred with enthusiasm.  
"You t-too… What are you doing in this part of the garden? I rarely see anyone here."

The blonde shrugged, and stood back up, satisfied with petting Laika.  
"Just trying to get over some writer's block. I'm going through a rough patch right now, y'know? Or well, you might not, but still…"  
Alfred was a bit shocked at his behaviour. He was never like this outside of his work. The blonde was always big, bold and confident to cover up his depression, but the awkward fumbling over words and breathlessness, must have been a side affect from the beautiful man in front of him, or maybe it was just the pollen. Either way, Alfred could've stood there looking at Ivan for the rest of eternity.  
"You write? O-Oh how nice. I would, but well, I-I'm blind, if you haven't' noticed."  
Ivan said with a soft laugh, his smile sweet and loving as he attempted to "look" at Alfred, who was currently as red as the poppies in the nearest flower bed.  
"We-Well, it was nice meeting you, Alfred, r-right? I hope we run into each other soon, да?"

Alfred nodded, getting out of the way as Ivan took a step, letting Laika know they were walking forward.  
"Yeah, have a good day!"  
The author called after Ivan, waving goodbye, although it was of no use. Once the handsome figure was out of earshot, Alfred sighed to himself and flopped down on the bench next to his notebook.  
"Oh _dear god_ , I think I'm in love.~"

~~~

Ivan laid on his bed, staring up at a world of grey and jumped a bit when he heard his phone buzz, but it was nothing compared to how he scrambled for the device once the AI read it out loud.

"Alfred F. Jones has posted a new video; The Prince of Winter. Watch it now?"

Ivan grabbed around for his phone and pressed the home button, speaking too fast for even any human to understand him.  
"Yeswachitnow"  
He spat, a little too excited.  
"I'm sorry, I couldn't' understand you. Please repeat yo-"  
"Yes, watch it now."

The minute it took to open and load the video, Ivan was stiff and anxious, wanting, wishing, needing to satiate his addiction to Alfred's beautiful voice. Only when he heard the familiar one did he relax, turning the volume up and closing his next to useless eyes.

"So- I know I recently said I have really bad writer's block, but I went out to the garden- the one next to our school- today, and met the most beautiful creature I have ever seen! He was _so. Fucking. Beautiful_. Ah! I could go on all day! But, I wrote something about it, and that's what you're here for, so I'll get to it."

Ivan was bright red. Alfred couldn't possibly be talking about him-... right? Ivan barely even knew what he looked like anymore. Almost all his memories had faded into sloppy, colourless blurs.

"There is a garden, in my kingdom. A garden rumored to be cursed. Though it blooms all year, every blossom bright and brilliant, the air is cold and crisp. In the garden, where no one dares walk, lives the prince of winter. A man as tall as a mountain, as as pale as snow, and with hair the colour of moonlight. Chiseled out of ice like a statue he stood tall as he guarded the garden, but could not enjoy it for he could not see. The roses, bright and happy, were dark to his frosted eyes, and his tears often watered the lonely lilacs where he strolled. Beautiful to see, but hard to understand, he still wanders the garden to this day, waiting for someone to cure him of his sadness…."


End file.
